Scientists finetune odds bennu earth update#
Scientists finetune odds bennu earth series#

They may also uncover potentially useful natural resources such as organic molecules and precious metals. Studying the sample in terrestrial labs, scientists hope to uncover clues about the birth of the planets and the origins of Earth’s water and life. It will be the largest planetary sample retrieved since the Apollo era, when astronauts brought rocks back from the moon. In a kiss-like manoeuvre, the spacecraft’s robotic arm will collect some material from Bennu’s surface, then sling the sample back toward Earth. OSIRIS-REx will spend the next 18 months there, surveying the landscape and probing Bennu’s chemical makeup before finally selecting what piece of the asteroid it wants to bring back home. OSIRIS-REx was finally at the doorstep of its new home.īennu is a carbonaceous asteroid - a primitive, carbon-rich piece of debris left over from the process that formed the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. Soon an image of the asteroid appeared on the mission control screens: a diamond-shaped body with a rough, speckled exterior. OSIRIS-REx was within 12 miles of Bennu’s surface - about the distance between the White House and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which manages the spacecraft. Then it must turn around and retrace its path back home.Then Cerna grinned and spread his arms out wide. With a puff of nitrogen gas, it will blow some material off the asteroid’s surface, gathering as much as 4.4 pounds of rock in the head of the sample. In 2020, after 18 months of observations, OSIRIS-REx will swoop close to Bennu and extend a long robotic arm equipped with its sample-collecting instrument, called TAGSAM.

Video animations of the spacecraft’s planned orbits look like an elaborate cosmic ballet.

Scientists finetune odds bennu earth update#

Engineers will uplink new orbital instructions to the spacecraft every day (a typical planetary mission might only update its trajectory once a week, Adam said).

Scientists finetune odds bennu earth series#

Yet Bennu’s small size also makes it possible for OSIRIS-REx to perform a series of carefully choreographed hairpin maneuvers around the asteroid. Photo by NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona via AP The spacecraft will spend a year surveying Bennu before collecting a sample that will be returned to Earth for analysis. Article content An artist’s rendering shows the mapping of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. OSIRIS-REx was within 12 miles of Bennu’s surface – about the distance between the White House and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which manages the spacecraft. Then Cerna grinned and spread his arms out wide. “Standby for Bennu arrival,” Cerna announced.

Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty Images A rocket carrying NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft lifts off on Sept. Sitting at mission control at the Denver offices of Lockheed Martin, which operates the spacecraft for NASA, engineer Javi Cerna waited for the signal indicating OSIRIS-REx had begun the burn needed to bring it close to its target. The next issue of NP Posted will soon be in your inbox.

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